Education Debates and Ad Hominem Rhetoric

I write about education for a living. Which means that I take anonymous online abuse for a living. But compared with folks who engage in direct education advocacy—like former CNN anchor Campbell Brown—I have a pretty easy time. Consider, for example, this attack site: The Real Campbell Brown.” I dug into why our education debates have gone beyond incivility to outright ad hominem insults in a new TPM column this morning:

I’m far from convinced by everything that gets done today in the name of education reform. But Rhee’s and Brown’s examples are indicative of a troubling pattern for reform opponents: anti-reformers are prone to shooting any reform messenger. Anti-reform has an ad hominem problem. In part this is because the anti-reform crowd is obsessed with who has standing to participate in education debates. Non-teachers don’t count (unless they’re Diane Ravitch). Parents’ voices are only permitted so long as they avoid direct challenges to failing schools.

Click here to read the rest